Over the past two weeks, the Livingston High School girls’ track and field team has traveled to the New York City Armory, a world renowned indoor track facility, to compete. “The Armory has a fast, banked track and provides a memorable experience for all athletes of all levels,” notes coach Dave Czeizinger. “As the season nears its end, moving closer to the state championship, the first of these competitions was the Metropolitan Invitational on January 26. The Invitational provided an opportunity at the freshman, novice and varsity levels and included talent from over 50 schools in the New Jersey-New York region. For many of the athletes, this was their last meet of the season.”The second event, the Varsity Classic, also saw competitors from 50 schools competing in what is primarily “a tune-up for the Sections on Sunday, February 13. This competition sees the best in varsity level with three relay events included in the meet.”Metropolitan InvitationalThe Metropolitan saw some 55 individual performances and a 4x200 relay taken on by the Lancers covering all three divisions. The meet was under way on the banked oval with six girls running the novice 1,600 meter race. Leading the way was Taylor Dannis (6:13; 15th). She was joined by Sophia Yan (6:20), Arthi Mampilly (6:29), Sydney Leigh (6:32), Sasha Culver (6:42), and Kathleen Chen (7:21).Next up for LHS was the varsity 4x200, run by Jadyn Kestenbaum, Annica Lam, Summer Yung, and Alyssa Hartman. They crossed the line at 1:53.9 for eighth place.The freshman 800 meter was run by Phoebe Liu (2:46.8; tenth). In the novice division, Carol Flores (3:03) and Ira Kamath (3:37) competed for the Lancers. The varsity level 800 was run by Kylie Prendergast (2:26.2; sixth) and Maggie Siao (2:47).The 200 meter dash had LHS represented on every level. Leading the freshmen was Darcy Bialick, grabbing fourth place in 29.28. Joining her were Sienna Wertheim (31.41), Jordan Talbot (32.94), Christina Jiang (31.65), Sofia Iskold (34.34), Avery Li (35.86) and Aubrey Koblinger (37.25).In the novice division, Rebecca Liu (30.90), Rachel Rosenberg (30.13), Jessica Su (31.55), Alexandra Bae (31.83), Angela Mo (31.83), and Isabella Dilanni (33.80) gave it their best. The varsity level saw Kestenbaum (28.14: 28th) lead the way. Monica Sharma (28.50), Lam (28.80) and Hartman (29.32) also competed.Many athletes competed in multiple events. On the infield were the 55 meter dash, 55 meter high hurdles, the high jump, and the long jump.
